Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

Allscripts has announced plans to move more of its software development and operations to India, while cutting 250 jobs in the U.S., or about 3.5% of its 7,200-member workforce. While this is significant enough as it is, it’s an even more important leading indicator of how Allscripts may perform going forward. Here’s how I think things will net out.

Making a “rebalancing”: The company has called the changes a “rebalancing” of staff which will allow it to respond more effectively and efficiently to shifts in its software design and product dev plans.

But the decision didn’t happen in a vacuum, either. Allscripts recently reported taking a $10.1 million loss for the first quarter ending March 31. That’s down from a loss of $20.7 million for Q1 2014, but the company still appears to be struggling. Allscripts’ overall revenue dropped 2% to $334.6 million for the quarter ending March 31, compared with Q1 of 2014.

What’s next? What should providers draw from these numbers, and Allscripts’ plan to shift more development work offshore? Let’s consider some highlights from the vendor’s recent past:

* Despite some recent sales gains, the vendor occupies a difficult place in the EMR vendor market — neither powerful enough to take on enterprise leaders like Epic and Cerner directly, nor agile enough to compete in the flexibility-focused ambulatory space against relentless competitors like athenahealth.

* According to an analysis of Meaningful Use data by Modern Healthcare, Allscripts is second only to Epic when it comes to vendors of complete EMRs whose customers have qualified for incentives. This suggests that Allscripts is capable of being an effective provider business partner.

* On the other hand, some providers still distrust Allscripts since the company discontinued sales of and support for its MyWay EMR in 2012. What’s more, a current class action lawsuit is underway against Allscripts, alleging that MyWay was defective and that using it harmed providers’ business.

* Partnering with HP and Computer Sciences Corp., Allscripts is competing to be chosen as the new EMR for the U.S. Department of Defense’s Military Health System, and is still in the running for the $11 billion contract. But so are Epic and Cerner.

The bottom line: Taken together, these data points suggest that Allscripts is at a critical point in its history.

For one thing, cutting domestic staff and shifting dev operations to India is probably a make or break decision; if the change doesn’t work out, Allscripts probably won’t have time to pull back and successfully reorient its development team to current trends.

Allscripts is also at a key point when it comes to growing place in the brutal ambulatory EMR market. With players like athenahealth nipping at its heels from behind, and Epic and Cerner more or less controlling the enterprise market, Allscripts has to be very sure who it wants to be — and I’m not sure it is.

Then when I consider that Allscripts is still in the red after a year of effort, despite being at a peak level for sales, that tears it. I’m forced to conclude that the awkwardly-positioned vendor will have to make more changes over the next year or two if it hopes to be agile enough to stay afloat. I believe Allscripts can do it, but it will take a lot of political will to make it happen. We’ll just have to see if it has that will.

Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

When you think of Epic, you hardly imagine a company which is running out of customers to exploit. But according to Frost & Sullivan’s connected health analyst, Shruthi Parakkal, Epic has reached the point where its target market is almost completely saturated.

Sure, Epic may have only (!) 15% to 20% market share in both hospital and ambulatory enterprise EMR sector, it can’t go much further operating as-is. After all, there’s only so many large hospital systems and academic medical centers out there that can afford its extremely pricey product.

That’s almost certainly why Epic has just announced that it was launching a cloud-based offering, after refusing to go there for quite some time. If it makes a cloud offering available, note analysts like Parakkal, Epic suddenly becomes an option for smaller hospitals with less than 200 beds. Also, offering cloud services may also net Epic a few large hospitals that want to create a hybrid cloud model with some of its application infrastructure on site and some in the cloud.

But unlike in its core market, where Epic has enjoyed incredible success, it’s not a lock that the EMR giant will lead the pack just for showing up. For one thing, it’s late to the party, with cloud competitors including Cerner, Allscripts, MEDITECH, CPSI, and many more already well established in the smaller hospital space. Moreover, these are well-funded competitors, not tiny startups it can brush away with a flyswatter.

Another issue is price. While Epic’s cloud offering may be far less expensive than its on-site option, my guess is that it will be more expensive than other comparable offerings. (Of course, one could get into an argument over what “comparable” really means, but that’s another story.)

And then there’s the problem of trust. I’d hate to have to depend completely on a powerful company that generally gets what it wants to have access to such a mission-critical application. Trust is always an issue when relying on a SaaS-based vendor, of course, but it’s a particularly significant issue here.

Why? Realistically, the smaller hospitals that are likely to consider an Epic cloud product are just dots on the map to a company Epic’s size. Such hospitals don’t have much practical leverage if things don’t go their way.

And while I’m not suggesting that Epic would deliberately target smaller hospitals for indifferent service, giant institutions are likely to be its bread and butter for quite some time. It’s inevitable that when push comes to shove, Epic will have to prioritize companies that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its on-site product. Any vendor would.

All that being said, smaller hospitals are likely to overlook some of these problems if they can get their hands on such a popular EMR. Also, as rockstar CIO John Halamka, MD of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center notes, Epic seems to be able to provide a product that gets clinicians to buy in. That alone will be worth the price of admission for many.

Certainly, vendors like MEDITECH and Cerner aren’t going to cede this market gracefully. But even as a Johnny-come-lately, I expect Epic’s cloud product do well in 2015.

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 10 blogs containing over 8000 articles with John having written over 4000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 16 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John is co-founder of InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and LinkedIn.

I was recently watching a video of Derek Hough, Dancer on Dancing with the Stars (and much more). In the interview Derek was asked which dance best fit various periods of his life. As an #HITNerd, I thought we could do something similar with EHR vendors. So…

If You Were an EHR, Which Would You Be? Are you…

Epic – Single minded, focused and dominating in their sphere. Closed to outside discussions, but very thoughtful and caring of those in your inner circle. A bulldog if someone comes after something you consider important. Built on an aging system that’s done well, but many question how much longer they can be successful on top of such an old platform.

Cerner – The second child who’s done really well for themselves, but wonders why the older brother gets all the attention. They’re successful, well educated, built on a strong foundation, open to improvement. They’ve recently taken on a little bit of baggage. They decided to marry someone who’s been divorced and has four children. We’re not sure how this new marriage is going to work out and how it’s going to impact the family structure.

MEDITECH – This is the middle child. Ahead of their time, but no one notices them anymore. They’re quiet and mostly stay to themselves in their corner. Sure, they’d like to be noticed and get more attention, but they don’t mind too much since they’ve been so successful.

Allscripts – Flashy. Exciting and unpredictable. They’re the one that wears the flashy green jacket to the party. They’ve worked on so many things in their life that it’s hard to really place who they are and what they do. They’ve seen a lot of success, but don’t make us predict what they’ll do next. They seem to have a clear vision of where there going (albeit different than it was 2-3 years ago), but that could change so you have to stay on your toes.

athenahealth – Despite some ADD tendencies, they’ve largely stayed the course on what they want to do and what they want to become. They’re always interesting to be around, because they’re never shy to say what they think or feel about anything. While not as successful as some other people, they still have a lot of potential that could blow up for good or bad. If nothing else, they’re the life of the party and always keep things interesting.

I could keep going, but that’s a good start using a few of the larger or more well known EHR vendors. Which one is most like you? Also, I really hope that many of you will join me in the comments and revise/improve upon what I’ve written or do something similar for another EHR vendor. Let’s have some fun and learn about people’s perceptions of these companies in the process.

When Carl Bergman isn't rooting for the Washington Nationals or searching for a Steeler bar, he’s Managing Partner of EHRSelector.com, a free service for matching users and EHRs. For the last dozen years, he’s concentrated on EHR consulting and writing. He spent the 80s and 90s as an itinerant project manger doing his small part for the dot com bubble. Prior to that, Bergman served a ten year stretch in the District of Columbia government as a policy and fiscal analyst.

We’re big on trends, shares and who’s going where. The closer the race, the more avid the interest – My Nats would be sitting pretty if only the Braves weren’t so pesky. The EHR market place is no exception for interest, even if the numbers are a lot harder to follow than the National League East.

In my last foray into EMR market share, I looked at SK&A’s stats from their rolling survey of US medical practices.

Another company, Definitive Healthcare similarly tracks the hospital EHR marketplace. They’ve generously shared their findings with Healthcare Scene and I’ve used them here. Please note: Any errors, mistakes or other screw-ups with their numbers are mine alone. With that said, here’s what I’ve found.

How Many Divisions Does the Hospital Market Have?

Definitive divides the hospital market into several categories that can be daunting to follow. That’s not their making. It’s the nature of the market.

The major division that Definitive reports on is inpatient versus ambulatory systems. You might think that ambulatory systems are only for non hospital setting, but hospitals, of course, have many outpatients and use ambulatory EHR systems to serve them.

The Inpatient Marketplace

Among inpatient systems, EPIC leads with a 20 percent share shown in Tables I and II. The market is highly concentrated with EPIC, Cerner and Meditech commanding 54 percent. The remaining 46 percent scatters with no one breaking double digits.

The Ambulatory Hospital Marketplace

The picture for hospital ambulatory systems used is notably different. See Tables III and IV. While EPIC and Cerner vary slightly from their inpatient share, the other vendors shift all over the place. Allscripts barely registers 4 percent in inpatient, jumps to third place with 14 percent.

Siemens and HMS drop off the top ten being replaced by eClinicalWorks and NextGen. At 22 percent is the catchall, Other EHRs. This is up 8 percent from its inpatient 14 percent.

Inpatient EHRs: Health Systems and Independent Hospitals

Definitive also breaks down inpatient hospitals by health system hospitals v independents. Almost a majority of health systems, 47 percent, choose EPIC and Cerner. See Tables V and VI. Indeed, the top four vendors, EPIC, Cerner, Meditech and McKesson astoundingly have a 74 percent share. The other vendors are at 7 percent or less.

Independent hospitals differ a bit from this pattern. Non major vendors have 12 percent and open source Vista has 5 percent, but otherwise the pattern is similar.

Inpatient Hospitals by Size: Under and Over 100 Beds

Hospitals with 100 plus beds, no surprise, favor EPIC, Cerner and Meditech. These three have a monopolistic 64 percent. See Table VII.

Small, Inpatient Hospital Systems: A More Competitive Market

Small hospitals are a different story. The top five vendors are bunched around 14 percent each. See Table VIII. The mix of vendors is starkly different. Meditech and Cerner lead with EPIC third. However, Epic drops nine percent from the prior group to 14 percent in this.

In the prior tables, the top three vendors have a market majority. In this group, 65 percent of the market belongs to the third through tenth vendors. You can see the difference in competition in Tables VIII and IX.

Hospital Ambulatory EHR Systems by Bed Size

The ambulatory market for hospitals with 100 plus beds is similar to the inpatient market. EPIC, Cerner and Allscripts have a 53 percent share.

The remaining share is split among several vendors, with eClinicalWorks, and athenahealth making an appearance. Significantly, Other EHRs ranked second.

Smaller hospitals’ ambulatory systems, as with smaller inpatient hospitals, show a competitive market. The category Other EHRs actually leads with a 21 percent share. Tables X and XI show the difference between these two markets.

Market Shares: What’s the Conclusion?

In this and previous posts, I’ve looked at EHR vendor market shares sliced up in several ways. I’ve used what I consider reliable, independent data sources from SK&A and Definitive Healthcare. I used their information because they are careful to include all practices in their surveys not just those that bother to reply.

I also used them for the simple reason that they were freely available to us. There are other sources, such as KLAS, that produce market surveys, but they charge about $2,500 for their analysis. Moreover, they keep all but the most general findings behind their paywall.

What then is the message from all these numbers? It’s this: there is a competitive market, but it’s only robust among small practices. Those with three or less practioners have the most competitive market with eClinicalWorks in the lead. Within major segments, EPIC, Cerner and Meditech dominate. The non hospital market is more mixed, but EPIC, Cerner, etc., share increases as practice size grows.

For these larger practices, it’s monopolistic competition. If you’re looking for an EHR and you have ten or more docs, you can find any number of vendors. It’s most likely you’ll end up choosing among just a few big guys.

This reminds me of when we shopped for kitchen cabinets and counter tops. We were impressed with some dramatic possibilities. The sales rep, who we got to know well, laughed:

“When folks start out they focus on the avant garde. Then they realize they’re choosing for several years. Suddenly they get more conventional.”

If you come by our place, you’ll see our oak cabinets and white tile counter top. I think it goes that way with hospital execs choosing EHRs. They may toy with something different, but in the end, they’ll go with what they know. After all, no one every got fired for buying EPIC. Well, almost no one.

Next: Attribution and Market Share

If you still haven’t got your fill of market numbers, I have one more topic to explore. I’m interested in knowing how market share relates to MU attestations. That is, does a high market share guarantee a high attestation rate? The next post in this series will look at that.

Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

So it’s little wonder that another group of health IT giants have stepped up to fight for such a juicy prize. A group lead by Computer Sciences Corp., whose partners include Allscripts and HP, has announced that it intends to compete for the contract.

The HMSM project is extremely ambitious. It’s intended to connect varied healthcare systems across the globe, located at Army hospitals, on Naval vessels, in battlefield clinics and more, into a single open, interoperable platform serving not only active-duty members, but also reservists and civilian contractors.

Before you burst out laughing at the idea that any EMR vendor could pull this off, it’s worth considering that perhaps their partners can. It’s hard to argue that CSC has a long track record in both government and private sector health IT work, and HP has 50 years with of experience in developing IT projects military health and VA projects.

That being said, one has to wonder whether Allscripts — which is boasting of bringing an open architecture to the project — can really put his money where its mouth is. (One could say the same of Epic, which frequently describes its platform as interoperable but has a reputation of being interoperable only from one Epic installation to the other.)

To be fair, both project groups have about as much integration firepower as anyone on earth. Maybe, if the winner manages to create an interoperable platform for the military, they’ll bring that to private industry and will see some real information sharing there.

That being said, I remain skeptical that the DoD is going to get what it’s paying for; as far as I know, there is no massively interoperable platform in existence that meets the specs this project has. That’s not an absolute dealbreaker, but it should raise some eyebrows.

Bottom line, the DoD seems determined to give it a try, regardless of the shaky state of interoperability in the industry overall. And its goals seem to be the right ones. After all, who wouldn’t want an open platform that lends itself to future change and development? Sadly, however, I think it’s more likely that will be shaking our heads over the collapse of the project some years from now.

Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

To do the study, KLAS interviewed clinicians and IT personnel at practices with 11 to 75 doctors.

Researchers named the top three mid-sized EMR vendors as Epic Systems, which scored a 85.3 points out of 100; athenahealth, which scored 83.5 points; and Greenway, which scored 81.3 points.

Each of the top three vendors distinguished themselves in unique ways. For example, researchers found that practices liked Epic’s consistent delivery in large hospital-based practices, athenahealth’s “nimble deployment” and system updates, and Greenway’s exceptional service to smaller, independent practices.

Meanwhile, KLAS noted that Allscripts, McKesson and Vitera had the highest percentage of dissatisfied customers, practices which felt stuck with their current EMR system but would not purchase it again. Reasons for their dissatisfaction included upgrade issues, lack of support, and a perceived lack of vendor partnership, iHealthBeat said.

When it comes down to it, it’s pretty clear when these practices need from their vendors, and a feeling of partnership and mutual support seems to top the list of matter which researchers is doing the study. But it’s clear that these characteristics can be pretty hard to come by, even from companies you’d think had plenty of resources to deliver a sense of support and availability to their customers. Allscripts, McKesson and Vitera (although it is Greenway now) had better get their act together quickly, as mid-sized medical practices are a major market, even if they don’t spend quite as much as hospitals.

Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

Nine months after announcing their plan to increase interoperability between health IT data sources, the CommonWell Health Alliance has disclosed the locations where it will first offer interoperability services.

CommonWell, whose members now include health IT vendors Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, CPSI, Greenway, McKesson, RelayHealth and Sunquest, launched to some skepticism — and a bit of behind-the-hand smirks because Epic Systems wasn’t included — but certainly had the industry’s attention. And today, the vendors do seem to have critical mass, as the Alliance’s founding members represent 42 percent of the acute and 23 percent of the ambulatory EMR market, according to research firms SK&A and KLAS.

Now, the rubber meets the road, with the Alliance sharing a list of locations where it will first roll out services. It’s connecting providers in Chicago, Elkin and Henderson, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina. Interoperability services will be launched in these markets sometime at the beginning of 2014.

To make interoperability possible, Alliance members, RelayHealth and participating provider sites will be using a patient-centric identity and matching approach.

The participating providers will do the administrative footwork to make sure the data exchange can happen. They will enroll patients into the service and manage patient consents needed to share data. They’ll also identify whether other providers have data for a patient enrolled in the network and transmit data to another provider that has consent to view that patient’s data.

Meanwhile, the Alliance members will be providing key technical services that allow providers to do the collaboration electronically, said Bob Robke, vice president of Cerner Network and a member of the Alliance’s board of directors. CommonWell offers providers not only identity services, but a patient’s identity is established, the ability to share CCDs with other providers by querying them. (In case anyone wonders about how the service will maintain privacy, Robke notes that all clinical information sharing is peer to peer — and that the CommonWell services don’t keep any kind of clinical data repository.)

The key to all of this is that providers will be able to share this information without having to be on a common HIE, much less be using the same EMR — though in Columbia, SC, the Alliance will be “enhancing” the capabilities of the existing local HIE by bringing acute care facility Palmetto Health, Midlands Orthopaedics and Capital City OB/GYN ambulatory practices into the mix.

It will certainly be interesting to see how well the CommonWell approach works, particularly when it’s an overlay to HIEs. Let’s see if the Alliance actually adds something different and helpful to the mix.

Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

Getting an EMR up and running in a hospital or health system is complicated enough. But managing EMR implementations in the midst of hospital mergers is even more difficult.

Like it or not, though, hospital CIOs are increasingly facing the likelihood that they’ll be facing a merger in the midst of their EMR rollout, notes a new piece in the Wall Street Journal. With reimbursements from both Medicare and private insurers falling, hospitals’ margins are growing perilously thin, and the pace of hospital mergers is likely to increase, according to a March report by Moody’s.

Right now, for example, two of New York’s biggest hospital chains — NYU Langone Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners — have agreed to discuss a possible merger. Continuum CIO Mark Moroses is in the process of moving his chain of hospitals to its GE Centricity EMR, in a move which will allow the chain to collect $20 million to $30 million in Meaningful Use incentives.

If the merger between Langone and Continuum goes through, Moroses will have to stitch together dozens of billing, procurement and patient care systems over the next few years, the WSJ notes. But more than that, the hospital chains will have to synchronize their clinical information management, a formidable job which, as Moroses says, leaves no room for error.

It’s not just systems integration that merging systems will face, however. As the WSJ piece notes, when North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System took over Lenox Hill Hospital in 2010, the systems’s CMIO Michael Oppenheim had to bring Lenox Hill’s data to a new version of its Allscripts EMR. The system used currently by Lenox Hill is an old one which isn’t certified for Meaningful Use.

Ultimately, hospitals’ urge to merge makes sense on a lot of levels. Given their tremendous capital costs (including EMR spending) it only makes sense to achieve economies of scale. Unfortunately, the commonsense desire to save money and be more efficient is going to subject HIT leaders to an even rougher ride then they might have expected.

Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

Allscripts has agreed to drop a lawsuit against the New York City Health & Hospitals Corp. over a $303 million contract, Bloomberg reports. In a display of what may be wishful thinking, Allscripts said it “looks forward to having the opportunity to work with HHC on other matters in the future,” according to Bloomberg.

Allscripts had sued the Health & Hospitals Corp., which runs the city’s public hospitals, when it awarded an EMR contract to Epic Systems. The contract involved tying together 11 public hospitals, 70 clinics, thousands of doctors and more than one million patients.

Allscripts had argued that it was a more logical choice because among other things, it offered a less costly choice. Execs had estimated that over 15 years, when ancillary costs are included, it would cost $1.4 billion to implement Epic, while its own EMR rollout could be completed for less than half that number.

But Alan Aviles, HHC’s CEO, argued that his team had given plenty of consideration to Epic’s rivals, spending four years on its nine-vendor shortlist. Moreover, he didn’t buy Allscripts’ savings estimates, according to a New York Times piece. Aviles noted that Allscripts’ estimate had assumed that application support for its product would cost nothing for 15 years, while HHC estimated the cost at $357 million.

Well, I don’t know what good all of this legal fencing did Allscripts. The vendor is already under closer scrutiny than its peers, given its management troubles and continued rumors that it will be acquired. I’d argue that the last thing it needs is to dissipate executive energies on a lawsuit that makes it look unreasonable or even desperate. But at least its leaders had the sense to drop the suit and move on.

Now it can turn its energies to the MyWay suit filed against it by a group of Florida physicians. The suit claims that the MyWay EMR, which was taken off the market last year, was defective, and that the offer of a free upgrade to its professional suite imposed additional costs.

Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

Could it be that real interoperability between vendors is on the way? Five big EMR vendors — including three hospital-oriented giants and two doctor-focused players — have come together during HIMSS to announce plans to create common standards for health data sharing, reports Forbes.

Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, athenahealth and Greenway Medical Technologies have joined to create a new non-profit called the CommonWell Health Alliance. (As most wags have noted, Epic is conspicuously absent from the mix.)

The partners haven’t disclosed a lot of detail as to how they plan to achieve interoperability amongst themselves, but the scheme seems to rely on creating a unique national ID. “Without a national ID and the ability to create true data that can be safely and securely sent between individuals, we are going to introduce new systemic risk back into the system,” Neal Patterson, founder, chairman and chief executive of Cerner told Forbes.

Patterson, public citizen that he is, said that the CommonWell Alliance isn’t a commercial effort but “an obligation.” That certainly sounds lovely, but with five hyper-competitive public companies forming up this effort, I’m skeptical to say the least. Besides, if it’s an obligation, why isn’t Epic so obligated?

John Halamka, Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center in Boston, has probably sniffed out more of partners’ true motivation. “They’re thinking of it as an enabler for new technologies,” Halamka suggests to Forbes, a move which can “raise the tide for all boats.”

Whether it raises any boats or not, creating interoperability links between these vendors certainly can’t hurt. After all, the more data sharing the better, particularly by major players with significant market share.

That being said, there’s still the matter of Epic being out of the picture, not to mention other major EMR players. How much of a practical difference the CommonWell Health Alliance can make is very much in question.